Robert Stansbury
What an "unforgettable" time we all had. We made it to Pasadena on Thursday night and slept in the driveway. The next morning we were parked next to the folks we sold our old trailer to from San Diego. I fired up the generator and plugged both rigs in. The Hampels and Squires had already arrived and they had met some great people from all around the country. As usual, the food was great and the activities in Pasadena are always special. We got to see the great Christmas lights at night and enjoyed decorating floats during the day.
As the parade date approached, we knew we were going to get sloshed with rain. I had the 4 am to 6 am chair watch, ran back to the trailer for a nap and returned for the event. It had been raining on and off all night. When the parade started the heavens opened. I felt so sorry for the high school and college bands that had to slog for five miles through hard rain. After the parade was concluded, we walked back to the trailers. At that point, I experienced the hardest rain that I have ever seen in my 59 years of life.
This was only the beginning of the day, however, as we had to return to Pleasanton. The skies cleared and we were able to make it over the Grapevine without much trouble. We stopped for dinner 3 miles south of Button Willow. It took us an hour to travel the next 3 miles where we were taken off the freeway. I-5 had been closed at the bottom of the Grapevine behind us and the Southbound lanes were closed to the North. For the next hour we toured Farmer Brown's fields and the frontage roads along the freeway. The high winds are what closed the roads. We go back on I-5 around Lost Hills and had to drive at 50 mph or be blown around. The Airstream never had a problem in these winds but we saw six big rigs that had been blown over in the median. About a dozen cars tried to U turns on the median and were stuck in the mud. We finally got home about 10 that night.
As I took the trailer back to the storage lot in Tracy, I wondered why we had bothered to go to Pasadena with all of its weather related problems. As I pulled up to my space, I got my answer. The 40' motor home that we park next to had its awning ripped off and it was laying on the ground right where we park. If my trailer had been there my skylights, solar panels and roof would have been smashed. Thank God we went to the Rose Parade Rally